The Secretary of Defense shall designate within each defense audit agency an official as the Small Business Ombudsman to have the duties described in subsection (b) and such other responsibilities as may be determined by the Secretary.

The Small Business Ombudsman of a defense audit agency shall—

(1) advise the Director of the defense audit agency on policy issues related to small business concerns;

(2) serve as the defense audit agency’s primary point of contact and source of information for small business concerns;

collect and monitor relevant data regarding the defense audit agency’s conduct of audits of small business concerns, including—

(A) data regarding the timeliness of audit closeouts for small business concerns; and

(B) data regarding the responsiveness of the defense audit agency to issues or other matters raised by small business concerns; and

(4) make recommendations to the Director regarding policies, processes, and procedures related to the timeliness of audits of small business concerns and the responsiveness of the defense audit agency to issues or other matters raised by small business concerns.

The Small Business Ombudsman of a defense audit agency shall be segregated from ongoing audits in the field and shall not engage in activities with regard to particular audits that could compromise the independence of the defense audit agency or undermine compliance with applicable audit standards.

In this section, the term “defense audit agency” means the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Defense Contract Management Agency.

(Added Pub. L. 112–239, div. A, title XVI, § 1612(a), Jan. 2, 2013, 126 Stat. 2064.)